Cleaner for sugar beets and the like



Jan. 6, 1953 E. P. MOLNAU 2,624,453

CLEANER FOR SUGAR BEETS AND THE. LIKE Filed Sept. 15, 1949 INVENTOR ERWIN P. MOLNAU ATTORNEYS Patented Jan. 6, 1953 UNITED STATE TENT OFFICE 1Claim.

This invention relates particularly to a sugar beet cleaner.

When sugar beets are harvested, a large quantity of dirt clings totheoutside thereof and materially increases the weight and displacementof the beets. Sugar beet processors are at the present time paying forbeets by weight and, of course, are paying beet prices for this dirtclinging to the beets.

It is an object of my invention to provide an extremely simple, yethighly efficient, sugar beet cleaner which will remove substantially allof the dirt from the surface of the beets and separate this dirt fromthe beets while delivering the cleaned beets to a collection location.

It is another object to provide an inclined beet receiving foraminousbed structure formed from a plurality of closely spaced substantiallyparallel elongated rotating rollers provided with roughened outersurfaces whereby the beets, as they travel down the foraminous bed, arecleaned and the removed dirt separated from the beets.

It is a further object to provide a beet cleaner having an inclinedforaminous bed structure formed from two sets of closely spacedsubstantially parallel rollers provided with roughened outer surfacesand having mechanism for rotating said sets in opposite directions tocarry the beets laterally on the bed as they travel longitudinally downthe incline thereof.

More specifically, it is an object to provide two sets of coplanarclosely spaced substantially parallel elongated rollers, each formedfrom a plurality of spaced parallel rod members and having means forrotating the rollers of said sets in opposite directions to split theflow of beets as they travel down the bed and carry the beets laterallyoutwardly to the sides of the bed where they are spiraled downwardly anddelivered to a suitable collection location.

These and other objects and advantages of my invention will more fullyappear from the following description made in connection with theaccompanying drawings wherein like reference character refer to thesame, or similar parts throughout the several views and in which:

Fig. 1 is an elevational diagrammatic view showing a typical conveyorarrangement with my beet cleaner mounted in the line of travel thereinfor unloading a truck and carrying the beets upwardly to permitdischarge thereof into a suit able collection location, such as arailroad car.

Fig. 2 is a top plan view of my cleaner mechanism with portions thereofbroken away; and

Fig. 3 is a, transverse substantially vertical sectional view takensubstantially along the line 3-3 of Fig. 2.

As illustrated in the accompanying drawings, I provide a beet cleaneradapted to be mounted in the line of flow of a beet unloader and loaderconveyor mechanism to clean the beets before final discharge thereof.

Fig. 1 shows a typical producers truck 5 in position to be dumped into acollection hopper 6 having a conveyor apron in the bottom thereof. Thisconveyor apron carries the beets a slight distance upwardly and deliverssaid beets to the inclined conveyor 7 which carries the same to the topof the supporting structure and delivers said beets on to the inclinedbed of my beet cleaner, designated as an entirety by the letter A. Anysuitable supporting structure may be used, such as the frame structure,designated as an entirety by the numeral 8. The beet cleaner A isdisposed a sufficient distance above the ground level to permit arailroad car, such as the gondola 9, or a truck, to be positioned underthe discharge end thereof to receive the flow of cleaned beets from thecleaner. The truck to is positioned under a dirt collecting hopper Ii,which is provided in underlying relation to the cleaning bed of thecleaner A and is collecting the dirt removed from the beets to preventaccumulation thereof at the loading station.

The cleaning bed of my beet cleaner, in the form illustrated, is formedfrom two sets of substantially parallel elongated roller structures,each roller structure being designated as an'entirety by the numeral 12.A suitable rigid sup porting structure, such as the frame 13, isprovided and the rollers E2, in the form illustrated, have alongitudinally disposed central shaft 12a fixed therein and this shaftis journaled at its end portions in suitable bearings mounted in theends of frame i3. Each of the intermediate shafts lZa has a bevel gear Il fixed thereto and the extreme lateral shafts [2a are respectivelydriven by suitable chain and sprocket driving connections l5. Atransversely disposed drive shaft I6 is journaled in the end portions ofopposed sides of frame 13. A plurality of bevel gears I! are fixed toshaft It in spaced relation thereon and respectively mesh with bevelgears M respectively fixed on roller shafts l2a, the bevel gears IT onopposite sides of the longitudinal center line of the bed being disposedon opposite sides of the respective bevel gears I4 to divide the rollers12 into two sets to be rotated in opposite directions. The shaft [6 isdriven from any conventional source of power by a suitable drivingmeans, such as the chain and sprocket drive I8 and is driven in such adirection so that the top of each set of rollers will be travelingtoward the respective sides of the bed to divide the beets at the centerand carry the same outwardly toward the sides as said beets travel downsaid inclined bed. The shafts I2 disposed at the lateral extremities ofthe bed are elevated a, slight distance above the line of coplanarshafts journaled in the bottom of the bed, as best shown in Fig. 3, andare respectively driven by the chain and sprocket drives I 5.

A pair of upstanding retaining plates I 9 which. in the form shown, aredisposed in slightly diverging relation one to the other arerespectively mounted along the sides of the bed and extend upwardly toprevent the beets from rolling outwardly over said sides. Each plate I9is mounted to permit vertical adjustment thereof, as by being providedwith elongated slots to receive the clampin bolts 20 therethrough. Thedirt collecting hopper II completely underlies the foraminous bed of thecleaner to collect the dirt removed from the beets and permit thedischarge thereof through the hopper opening Ila, shown by the dottedlines in Fig. 2.

Each of the rollers I 2 is provided with a roughened outer surface and,in the form shown, is made from a plurality of spaced parallel rodmembers I2b which are respectively fixed around the shafts I211 inperipherally spaced relation and serve to intermittently engage thebeets as they travel down the incline of the bed, and the impact of thisintermittent engagement serves to clean substantially all of the dirtfrom the beets. During the operation of my cleaner, the beets aredischarged onto the top portion of the inclined bed and the two sets ofrollers travel in opposite directions toward the respective sides of thebed, splitting the fiow of beets at the center of the bed and carryingsaid beets outwardly toward said sides. As the beets collect along thesides in their travel downwardly longitudinally of the bed, they arespiraled one over the other and the force of impact of the rods IZbagainst the beets combines with the force of impact of the beets, oneagainst the other, in the removal of the dirt. The cleaned beets aredischarged from the lower end of the bed and the dirt is dischargedthrough the opening Na in the bottom of the hopper I I.

It will be seen that I have provided an extremely simple beet cleanerparticularly adapted for eflicient cleaning of sugar beets to remove thedirt therefrom, which cleaner embodies the combination of a. pluralityof elongated rollers having roughened outer surfaces and divided intotwo oppositely rotating sets to carry the beets outwardly to the sidesof the bed during their longitudinal travel down the bed. My cleaningdevice is particularly adapted to be interposed into a conveyormechanism to receive the beets at one end thereof and longitudinallycarry the beets in the line of conveyor travel to discharge the same atthe other end thereof. By collecting the beets at the sides of the bed,the impact of the beets one against the other is combined with theimpact of the beets against the rods of the rollers to provide a highlyeflicient cleaning operation.

It will, of course, be understood that various changes may be made inthe form, details, arrangement and proportions of the parts withoutdeparting from the scope of my invention.

What I claim is:

Cleaning apparatus for removing dirt and other material from the outsideof sugar beets and the like, said apparatus having in combination asupporting structure, an inclined cleaning bed mounted on said structureand adapted to receive articles to be cleaned at the upper end thereofand to discharge the cleaned articles at the lower end thereof, saidcleaning bed comprising a plurality of parallel cleaning rollers spacedapart the same distance at the top as at the bottom and each rollerincluding a plurality of spaced parallel rod-like members mounted aroundthe periphery thereof, driving mechanism connected with each roller forrotating the rollers on one side of the longitudinal center line of thebed in one direction and the rollers on the other side of said bed inthe other direction to divide said bed into two sets of rollers, thedirection of rotation of said sets being such that the upper portions ofthe rollers travel away from said center line to carry the articlesoutwardly toward the side edges of the bed, all of said rollers being ofequal outside diameter and the extreme side rollers revolving on axesdisposed above the axes of the other rollers, the axes of the remainingrollers all lying in the same inclined plane.

ERWIN P. MOLNAU.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 18,380 Borda Oct. 13, 1857118,895 Baker Sept. 12, 1871 747,771 Richter Dec. 22, 1903 1,728,194Woodson Sept. 17, 1929 1,995,693 Urschel Mar. 26', 1935 2,119,919 KnightJune 7, 1938 2,145,330 Anderson Jan. 31, 1939 FOREIGN PATENTS NumberCountry Date 270,835 Great Britain May 19, 1927

